TO celebrate the official launch of the Ilkley Town Centre Gift Card and to help spread the word about how the gift card can be used in over 70 businesses across the town, including shops, restaurants and services, Ilkley BID teamed up with local radio station Rombalds Radio for a bumper lucky dip event as well as a Gift Card online competition.

Eighty winners were lucky enough to share a total of £1,000 worth of Ilkley gift cards plus other prizes kindly donated by businesses in Ilkley. There were nearly 250 valid entries for the online competition with four winners taking home a total of £450. In addition, £550 worth of gift card prizes were given away to the public in the lucky dip event which took place in Ilkley town centre.

Driven by Ilkley Business Improvement District, the Ilkley Gift Card is part of the BID’s mission to promote the ‘shop local’ message and encourage people to lock money into the local economy.

As well as the lucky dip event, the Ilkley BID and Rombalds Radio team interviewed businesses who are participating in the scheme. One of the shops they visited was The Grove Bookshop which said: “The Ilkley Town Centre Gift Card is a great initiative that will really benefit Ilkley’s retailers. We hope that lots more businesses will join the scheme to help keep spend in the town.”

The overall winner of the online competition was Janet Meikle who took home the top prize of a £250 gift card which she intends to spend in The Grove Bookshop.

Fran Wade won one of the runner-up £50 prizes. Fran is a competitive board gamer with the Ilkley Board Games Group so chose to spend his gift card at Games Crusade to buy a game to donate to the group.

Lisa Drake, project coordinator at Ilkley BID, was delighted with the success of the giveaway and said: “It was great meeting so many visitors and residents of the town with Rombalds Radio. We received such positive feedback about the gift card initiative as the people we spoke to are all passionate about Ilkley and are keen to see the local businesses thrive and flourish.”

Helen Rhodes, Ilkley BID Manager added: “This scheme offers the perfect way for local people to help Ilkley businesses by choosing the gift card for friends and family. The wide selection of businesses accepting the card is sure to mean the recipient is well catered for, whatever their tastes. We also see this as a great way to reward staff and what a super end of year gift for teachers!”

The gift card can be purchased online at www.ilkleygiftcard.co.uk and bought in person at the Visitor Information Centre on Station Road (Monday – Saturday 9.30am-12.30pm, 1pm-4.30pm).

Blank cards to load yourself online can also be collected from a variety of retailers around town.

Further details can be found on the Discover Ilkley website www.discoverilkley.co.uk.

Any businesses who are not yet part of the scheme are encouraged to contact Ilkley BID to sign up.